I am now into my third week of being gainfully employed and so far it’s been interesting. The people I work with are very nice which is always a huge bonus and the four hour day is lovely if not a little strange to me still. In my last job I worked relatively long hours and had to commute 15 miles each way. Now my working hours are much more civilised and my commute involves a 10 minute walk through the marina. Oh the stress of it all…! I feel very lucky indeed and glad I didn’t succumb to the agencies who promised me I would be perfect for the buyers position in the factory down the road. It will still be a stretch on the finances from time to time but I have convinced Martyn it’s worth it to have a happy me to come home to on an evening. That and the added advantage of having his washing done, boat (reasonably) tidy and food (sometimes it’s edible!) on the table.
As the year begins to fly by at an astonishing rate the events in Brighton seem to multiply week after week. We have the Brighton Festival, The Fringe Festival, there are open house events, photography festivals and most importantly the Mini festival. We have been waiting for the Mini festival to arrive and it did, this weekend 15th May 2011. We awoke a little late after making the most of Saturday night which led into Sunday morning. Sometimes we have no idea when to go to bed although I have a suspicion that most of the evening are usually spent fast asleep! We tried to watch a film on Friday night, I saw the first bit and the last bit and Martyn saw most of the middle, between us we managed to piece most of it together, I digress… We awoke to the sound of beeping horns and screeching tyres and surmised the minis were in town. We tried to gather our limbs and finally hit Madeira Drive around lunchtime, it was heaving! When there is an event on Madeira Drive it usually ends quite a long way away from the marina, not today. There were row upon row of minis, flags flying, club banners everywhere the atmosphere was amazing. We couldn’t believe it. It was as if as one child noted ‘ all the minis in the country must be here!’. They stretched from one end of Madeira Drive to the other and they were still arriving as we made our way towards the pier. It was quite a shock and very different to the rally we experienced back in 1993. Martyn first car was a mini KOM 14P. It was green, well greeny yellow, not the best colour but it was good fun. Minis somehow have a way of making you smile, they are cute if you take away the rust, the oil and danger factor. We had fun in the mini and decided we would do something daring, something that involved travelling a long way… down South OMG! We registered for the London to Brighton Mini Rally and looked forward to the adventure then disaster struck! It think it must have been Easter because I was at home and not in Hull at University. I was waiting for Martyn to pick me up to take me to the pictures, he was late and I was getting anxious, he was very rarely late as he only lived in the next village on from mine. In the days before mobile phones there was nothing you could do but wait a while then start ringing round peoples houses if you were looking for someone. It was getting close to the point where I was going to ring his Dad when he turned up at the doorstep, without the mini. “Where’s the car?” I asked “Upside down on the heights road” he replied. My heart skipped a beat and everything went in slow motion. I remember my Dad got a sweeping brush and we set off in the sooty van back to the scene of the accident. It looked dreadful. The passenger side roof was completely caved in and poor old KOM sat on her roof facing the wrong way. Thank god it hadn’t gone down the hillside. It was so close to the edge, if he’d gone down there who knows when we would have found him…! Poor old Martyn was then told off for leaving the scene of an accident - what else are you supposed to do when you’re in the middle of no-where? And had to watch his little car be towed away never to be seen again. It was a very sad day and I think the guy who ran him off the road got away with it. Our dreams of attending the London to Brighton Mini Rally were shattered and we thought that was the end of it. Luckily our parent took pity on us and another mini was sourced and prepared for the grand trip! Our first rally - of any kind - Wahoo!! She was a 1275 GT in blue and she was lovely. We left Hull in may 1993 took our first trip over the Humber Bridge and headed south. We were bound for Crystal Palace and a small place by the sea called Brighton, which apparently is a little bit like Hebden Bridge by the sea…! (To be continued…)
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